Megatuce.com

Over the weekend, I received my newest Mundo de Unas stamping polishes. I decided to swatch them all, so I could see what sort of colors I had to work with, and figured I might not be the only one interested in them! I swatched all of the colors over both black and white and kept color groups together.

All of the polishes stamped well. You will notice a few places where they seem stringy — that is actually cotton. With all of the swatching and polish removal, I was fighting a losing battle against a cotton invasion. However, the stringy-nonsense does not affect the color, which is quite apparent in each picture. And you can still tell how crisp the polishes stamp, as the stringy-crap is obvious where it wrought havoc.

Also – I put the photos into collages, to try and cut this post down from an absolute monster size!

So, let’s get started!

From left to right on the nail: Iris, Lavender, Iris, Lavender. I was surprised that I did not have any staining issues with these. These colors are pretty similar, though. Unless you are a shade fanatic (like me), you could probably make do with one.

Left to right: Light Gray, Holland Blue, Light Gray, Holland Blue. Holland Blue is pretty similar to the blues above, as well. It is noticeably lighter, but, again, if you are watching your bottom line, you can probably make do with only one of the three.

Left to right: Green, Avocado, Green, Avocado. I really like both shades, but need to compare Avocado to Lemon Tree (which I purchased in my first MdU order and LOVE) to see how similar they are.

Left to Right: Forest, Military Green, Forest, Military Green. Both stamped quite nicely. Military Green shows over the black, but is not super vibrant. I could definitely see a beautiful fall mani with it, thought…maybe over a rich brown. That color definitely has my wheels turning.

From left to right: (pretty obvious…) Mexican Pink, Aqua, Mexican Pink, Aqua. Fun, bright colors! I love them both over both black and white.

From left to right: Old Pink, Metallic Purple, Old Pink, Metallic Purple. Both are metallic shades and lovely. If you were going to pick only one, I would definitely go with Old Pink…it stole my heart!

From left to right: Copper, Brown, Copper, Brown. Brown is definitely more subtle over the black, but like Military Green, I could see using for an earthy mani over a hunter green or something similar.

From left to right: Silver, Light Gold, Silver, Light Gold. There are somewhat similar, but different enough that I am glad I bought both. There are some other metallic shades that I may purchase before too long, as well.

From left to right: Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Orange. Both of these are so vibrant! I am quite happy with both.

So, those are my most recent acquisitions. Although I have used the ones from my first purchase and used several for the first stamping comparison post, I have not swatched them just to swatch. So, that may be coming soon, too!

Thanks for stopping by!

I recently saw a gorgeous mani created by @caqui_nails (seriously, check out her page for some awesome nail art!) where she let a watermarble dry and cut it into pieces to apply to her nail. The effect was amazing. I am awful at watermarbling — no matter what, I inevitably mess up at some point. I am glad I gave this technique a shot, because, after a ton of testing, I ended up with this:

It took a long time and quite a bit of practice to get here, though. Let’s start at the beginning:

I first decided to try easy colors that contrast obviously. This is OPI My Vampire is Buff, Elephantastic Pink, and Can’t Find my Czechbook. I dropped the nail polish as you would for any ordinary marble and then used a toothpick to drag the polish. Again, I kind of stink at these, so ignore the crappy design. Instead of dipping, however, I left the design dry completely. Once it was dry, I lifted it from the water. I played around with this one a bit, cutting it up and such, but apparently forgot to take pictures. Either way, I didn’t want to use these colors today, so tried again using my Color Club holos.

I used Color Club Angel Kisses, Beyond, and Eternal Beauty. I followed the same steps as above. It is REALLY important to let the polish dry completely before removing it from the water. If you don’t, here’s what happens:

Yeah — total mess. I thought it was dry, but it totally wasn’t.

Anyways, I put down a base of OPI My Vampire is Buff. Once that was dry, I cut the dry marble into pieces. I was just kind of playing around, so decided to go for an abstract art kind of look. I put down a quick dry clear coat, then used tweezers to add the pieces where I wanted. I overlapped some of the pieces in places. In others, I let the pieces hang over the nail. I used acetone to clean up, then top coated. Here was the final look:

It probably would have looked better with a different base color, but still kind of cool.

Then I go to thinking that I could just use the dry marble as a decal over the whole nail. The marble look without dipping! Awesome! So, of course, I set in on another mani. This time, I made several decals so I would have options (again, I’m not great at the design…I need more practice).

I used:

Color Club Cheuobic, Kismet, and Cosmic Fate.

I used Cosmic Fate on all of my nails except my accent (ring finger). There, I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

I picked out the pieces I most wanted to use, and cut them out.

Just like before, I put down a coat of quick dry, then applied the decal. I cleaned up with acetone and top coated.

And that was that. A long process, but this is the best a marble has ever turned out for me, so I’m happy!

Thanks for stopping by, and stick around — I have a ton of good stuff coming up!

Monthly Archives: October 2014

Mundo de Unas Swatches

Modified Marble